Closed Season for hunting wildlife to take effect August 1

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Wildlife hunting will be closed from August 1 through December 1, this yearWildlife hunting will be closed from August 1 through December 1, this year

• Wildlife hunting will be put on hold from August 1 ​

• It will end on December 1, 2021, a Forestry Commission statement has said

• The action is part of measures to conserve wildlife in the country

From August 1, 2021, till December 1, 2021, the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, will enforce the “Close Season” to protect wildlife.

This is in line with the Wildlife Conservation Regulations – L. I 685 of 1971, reports ghenvironment.org.

Making this known in a statement by the Wildlife Division, it said that during the period of the annual ban, activities such as hunting, capturing, or destroying of wild animals, will be considered illegal.

“During this period, it shall be illegal for anybody to hunt, capture or destroy any wild animal except grass cutter which can be done only under license issued by the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission”, the statement added.

Over the years, the Commission has adopted the closed season as a way of regulating the utilization and curbing of the decline of wildlife resources in Ghana.

This, the report added, is also to ensure the sustainable use of the resource, and, anyone who is found to have contravened the “provision of these regulations shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine.”

In the history of Ghana, the trade of hunting wild animals has been a male-dominated area, but the majority of the traders and hunters operate illegally and with impunity, the report added.

Among these is trapping, which is considered the most widely used hunting technique, and this has been found to impose brutalities on the captured animals.

A study titled, “The Wildlife Trade in Ghana: A Threat to Biodiversity Conservation,” published in the Ghana Journal of Science, said that only 24 per cent of traders operate with licenses because the existing wildlife laws are not enforced rigidly.

“There appeared to be no arrests or reprimands for breaching the law on open and close seasons for hunting, as all kinds of live animals or carcasses were on display along the highways of Ghana all-year-round,” it said.

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